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Curators Aimee Lusty and Kate Wadkins seek submissions for a feminist art zine to be released at the close of BRASS IN POCKET, a group show which opened Friday, September 13, 2013 and continues through October 27th at Booklyn Artists Alliance.

The zine seeks to represent contemporary feminist artists who explore new possibilities in their respective media, producing work that breaks conventional boundaries in terms of subject and process. The zine also aims to challenge and play on traditional notions of “feminist art.” This is Booklyn Art Gallery’s third open call for submissions for a collaborative zine published in tandem with the gallery’s programming.

Submissions will be accepted in two sizes, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, or 8.5 x 7.5 inches. All submissions should be black and white, at 300dpi. The deadline for submissions has been extended to October 20, 2013. Please send all submissions to booklynopencall@gmail.com.

This event will be both a zine reading and zine sale to benefit The Ali Forney Center, a Manhattan-based organization which provides housing to homeless LGBT youth. Part of the Center’s facility is located near the Hudson River and was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. The event will include readings by zinesters as well as the sale of zines generously donated by many zinesters. 100% of proceeds will go to this important community resource.

We are aware of recent critiques of the Ali Forney Center*, and we concur with TransRadical blog** that it is crucial to rebuild AFC in order to continue creating safe and welcoming communities for LGBTQ youth everywhere.

I’ve been working with a few folks over the past week to launch occupysms.org, and we need help getting the word out, specifically to people and organizations on the ground who are canvassing neighborhoods for needs (like pumping, supplies, cleanup, etc). Read more…

WHAT IT IS:

OCCUPYSMS.org is a way for people to request and provide aid via an automated text message system—without having to rely on internet access. We hope that this can be a great resource for community organizations that may be overloaded with volunteers by lessening bottleneck and expediting efforts.

HOW IT WORKS:

People in need (or volunteers on their behalf) text SANDY to 69866 and indicate their location and need —pumping, cleanup, supplies, food, etc. This need is entered into our database.

People providing aid text MUTUAL AID to 69866 and indicate their location and resource. The system will find the address of someone in the area who needs their particular resource. If the volunteer chooses to accept responsibility for this need request, it will be taken out of the SMS database. Contact information between the volunteer and person in need will be shared so they can communicate further.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

In order for this to work, we need people reporting need requests so that the database can be populated for the volunteers providing help. Please spread the word to volunteers you have canvassing neighborhoods, civilians in need who come to your distribution centers for help, and to potential volunteers on social media.

The tour will consist of “DIY” events (like the kickoff this evening) featuring bands, music, and readers, as well as school-sponsored panels, bringing POC zines into the university. For a preview, see a video of our Meet Me at the Race Riot event produced by Barnard.

I think that being able to tour & travel has helped me deal with how white punk can be because I’ve been able to make connections with black & brown punks all over the country and even internationally.

Even though zines are largely seen as either a literary art form or as a “music thing,” imagine the transformative nature that zines could have in all aspects of our lives? The power of narratives being read straight from the pens of those living them with out fear of persecution within and outside of their own community, or, inversely, the recognition of a POC voice within their community and power lying in the ease in which a zine can be created—we don’t need anyone’s publishing money, we don’t need anyone’s approval.

I wanted to go on this tour… to connect with other punks of color about this thing we love and sometimes hate, to present something –a zine, a tour— that might make sense of that push and pull and give it a history, and then to create something new between us.

I decided to join the [POC Zine Project] tour because I thought it was an awesome opportunity to hang out with women of colour who I could hopefully talk to about things that I think about alot, but don’t necessarily get to talk about that much in the communities and cities that I live in! I’m working on the third issue of my punk zine Fix My Head, which is a collection of interviews with “Punx of Colour,” mostly women who have been playing in hardcore/punk bands for some time, and their experiences of racism/fetishisation/exclusion/etc.

FOR THE BIRDS is excited to announce that we will be presenting a workshop titled “Winging It: Nurturing Authentic Communication in Feminist Organizing” at this weekend’s Combating Latent Inequality Together Fest, being held in Highland Park / New Brunswick, NJ.

In this workshop, For the Birds (a New York-based feminist collective and distro) will guide a community discussion about internal and external struggles in feminist cultural and social justice organizing, creating feminist spaces, and coalition building. The Collective maintains that it is imperative to communicate authentically in order to bridge gaps, and to grow, both interpersonally and between groups. The workshop will discuss commonalities, such as the way that the efforts of many marginalized groups coalesce around issues like safer spaces, grassroots modes of organizing, and artistic and political visibility. For the Birds invites questions about their own processes, and seeks to find out how other feminists work through these issues and towards similar goals in their own groups and communities. This is a participatory workshop.

For additional C.L.I.T. Fest details visit their website. The entire schedule is posted here. I (Kate) am also curating a zine reading Friday night and speaking on a panel entitled “Art Labor: A Discussion of Art Practice, Presence, Preservation and Perseverance,” but I wrote a fairly lengthy blog post about that on my personal blog. For the Birds will be tabling Sunday as well.

To pump you up for the Fest, listen to this “once-in-a-lifetime” podcast with the C.L.I.T. Fest organizers, in which they discuss their process planning the Fest, their own experiences in activism and D.I.Y. communities, and why conversations like these are so vital.

on the tough guy style I’m not too keen
to try to change the world I will plot and scheme

We at For the Birds were devastated to hear about the loss of Adam Yauch this week after a several year battle with cancer. MCA was a cultural and political force– he was not only a brilliant artist, but was inspirational to many of us during our formative years as budding activists. His commitment to social justice was unwavering. MCA was an anti-racist, a pacifist, a feminist and didn’t shy away from critiquing and subverting power, whether it be Islamaphobia and United States foreign policy or raising awareness and money for Tibetan independence.

Many have remembered his transformation along with Ad-Rock and Mike D in the ’90s. Moving past their frat-like younger years, the Beasties publicly apologized, as well as wrote lyrics about their own, and others’ sexist antics. The Beastie Boys took on topics like masculinity and respect for women, seamlessly rapping about it in their trademark bratty style, or speaking out in more blatant forums, like the MTV Video Music Awards. Watching the Beastie Boys become more outspoken and mindful as celebrities was empowering. It was often MCA at the helm as he increasingly used his fame to advocate for social change throughout the 2000s. Most recently, he has been a supporter of the Occupy movement, marching on the Brooklyn Bridge this past November in between treatments.

While we have been heartened by the Beasties from afar, it’s also great to hear snippets about a young Yauch being “SO COOL” to “teenage all girl brat attack bands” of the early 1990s (recalled by Layla Gibbon of Maximum Rocknroll). The Beastie legacy is not just the one we all know that looms so large, but a real, community-based one. In recent years Yauch’s film company, Oscilloscope, has been yet another vehicle for sharing and promoting renegade cultural work in the world.

You will be missed, MCA. We got your back on the plotting and scheming.

I’m reposting this from OutHistory.org, though it was sent to me by the NYU Gender & Sexuality Studies e-mail list. It’s a great resource if you don’t already subscribe, I highly suggest it for staying on top of a huge variety of critical race and gender lectures and events in the NYC area.

In addition to the recommended features listed below, be sure to search OutHistory.org for other “African American”, “Afro”, and “Black” history entries.

Sick of all the football talk? Perhaps you should check out this great show hosted by Permanent Wave tonight at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge. And if you can’t make it tonight, here’s a list of their additional upcoming shows:

The People of Color (POC) Zine Project, Barnard Zine Library and For The Birds Collective are excited to announce a zine reading/community event featuring poc zinesters with diverse backgrounds in zine culture and activism. This is an ALL AGES event, so spread widely!

We’ll be adding more details to this event listing, but here are the confirmed readers and details:

Barnard Zine Libary: http://zines.barnard.edu/
Barnard’s zines are written by women (cis- and transgender) with an emphasis on zines by women of color. We collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, third wave feminism, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, trans experience, and other topics.

FOR THE BIRDS: http://forthebirdscollective.org/
FOR THE BIRDS is a New York City-based feminist collective. We work towards establishing alternative spaces that promote the creative interests of women-identified community members. For the Birds is a collaborative group of organizers with backgrounds in feminism, social justice work, and various artistic pursuits. Through DIY feminist cultural activism, For The Birds aims to empower and support radical women of action.

POC ZINE PROJECT: https://www.facebook.com/pages/POC-Zine-Project/304152466201
We want to make it easier for POC (People of Color) zine fans and their supporters to find a diverse selection of zines made by POC. Zines are a vital component in the long tradition of self-publication. They share knowledge and experiences that supplement (and often contradict) the information that other sources distribute, encouraging free thought. There are many valuable zine collections in the United States (many accessible online) but none that are devoted to curating POC zines. POC Zine Project’s mission is to makes ALL zines by POC easy to find, share, and distribute.